Yuichi Suzuki

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at Kanagawa University

Recent research has called for the use of fine‐grained measures that distinguish implicit knowledge from automatized explicit knowledge. In the current study, such measures were used to determine how the two systems interact in a naturalistic second language (L2) acquisition context. One hundred advanced L2 speakers of Japanese living in Japan were...

The present study challenges the validity of elicited imitation (EI) as a measure for implicit knowledge, investigating to what extent online error detection and subsequent sentence repetition draw on implicit knowledge. To assess online detection during listening, a word monitoring component was built into an EI task. Advanced‐level Japanese L2 sp...

Accumulating evidence suggests that time-pressured form-focused tasks like grammaticality judgment tests (GJTs) can measure second language (L2) implicit knowledge. The current paper, however, proposes that these tasks draw on automatized explicit knowledge. A battery of six grammar tests was designed to distinguish automatized explicit knowledge a...

This study examined optimal learning schedules for second language (L2) acquisition of a morphological structure. Sixty participants studied the simple and complex morphological rules of a novel miniature language system so as to use them for oral production. They engaged in four training sessions in either shorter spaced (3.3‐day interval) or long...

The aim of this study was to contribute to the field of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) by investigating the individualization of intentional vocabulary learning. A total of 118 Japanese-speaking university students studied 20 low-frequency English words using flashcard software over two learning sessions. The participants practiced retr...

In order to understand the development of automatization in second language (L2) acquisition and its role in speaking fluency development, 39 English as foreign language (EFL) learners performed a speaking task (subsequently analyzed for utterance fluency) as well as semantic classification (lexical processing measure) and maze (grammar processing...

Preprint version] Please cite as: Suzuki, Y. (2024). Skill acquisition theory: Learning-to-use and usage-for-learning in SLA. In K. McManus (Ed.), Usage in second language acquisition: Critical reflections and future directions (pp. 147-168). New York: Routledge. ABSTRACT This chapter presents an overview of extant research on practice and automati...

This fMRI study explored the relationship between social interactions and neural representations of emotionality in a foreign language (LX). Forty-five late learners of Japanese performed an auditory Japanese lexical decision task involving positive and negative words. The intensity of their social interactions with native Japanese speakers was mea...

The present study examines the optimal schedule of second language (L2) grammar practice. Fifty‐four English‐as‐a‐foreign language learners practiced using hypothetical conditionals through written production‐based dictogloss tasks, accompanied by an explicit grammatical explanation, in three learning sessions over several weeks. Learners in the lo...

Explicit and implicit knowledge Declarative and procedural memory Elicited imitation task Automaticity fMRI a b s t r a c t Development of valid tasks that tap into implicit knowledge is a prerequisite for understanding the interface between explicit and implicit grammatical knowledge in second language (L2) acquisition. However, the extent to whic...

While task repetition is effective for improving oral fluency, some teachers are reluctant to use it in their classrooms due to the alleged negative perceptions of learners toward repetitive practice. To address this concern, the participants in the current study completed a posttask questionnaire probing their perceptions toward task repetition pr...

The last few years have witnessed exponential growth in research output within the field of language aptitude. With contributions from an international team of leading experts, this volume provides the most comprehensive, authoritative and up-to-date overview of developments in language aptitude theory and practice. It addresses central and newly e...

The last few years have witnessed exponential growth in research output within the field of language aptitude. With contributions from an international team of leading experts, this volume provides the most comprehensive , authoritative and up-to-date overview of developments in language aptitude theory and practice. It addresses central and newly...

Research has suggested that long spacing (i.e., temporal intervals) within a training session facilitates second language vocabulary learning. Studies, however, have been limited to treatment that involved sessions for only initial learning but not subsequent relearning. Furthermore, most studies have investigated only the benefits of spacing witho...

Shadowing is the act of vocalizing the speech one is listening to as simultaneously as possible. The primary function of shadowing is learners’ listening skill and pronunciation skill development. Despite the importance of second language (L2) listening skills, this pedagogical technique has not received focal attention in the field. In this paper,...

In this study, neural representation of adult second language (L2) speakers’ implicit grammatical knowledge was investigated. Advanced L2 speakers of Japanese living in Japan, as well as L1 Japanese speakers, performed a word-monitoring task (proposed as an implicit knowledge test) in the MRI scanner. Behavioral measures were obtained from aptitude...

Available through Open Access at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02655322221080898

Extending the paradigm in L1 acquisition, scholars have begun to investigate whether participants' domain-general ability to represent, encode, and integrate spectral and temporal dimensions of sounds (i.e., auditory processing) could be a potential determinant of the outcomes of post-pubertal L2 speech learning. The current study set out to test t...

In this task-repetition intervention study, L2 learners’ reuse of linguistic constructions was analyzed to investigate to what extent recurring reliance on specific constructions during the same task repetition predicts fluency development. English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners performed oral narrative tasks three times per day under two tas...

The extent to which grammatical representation and processing in second language (L2) rely on the same brain networks as Õrst language (L1) is a fundamental issue. Previous neuroimaging studies showed that L1 grammatical processing recruits several key brain regions, such as the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and posterior superior temporal gyr...

The purpose of this intervention study is to reveal the extent to which memory-related aptitudes are implicated in the second language (L2) fluency development fostered by task repetition. English L2 learners are engaged in oral narrative tasks three times per day under two different 3-day task repetition schedules: blocked (Day 1: A-A-A, Day 2: B-...

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO9QNu0lqxM. This recording includes six talks presented in a colloquium at the 2021 annual conference of the American Association of Applied Linguistics. The talks revolve around the measurement and validity of implicit language aptitude, a newly emerged construct in second language acquisition. The speakers i...

A subtest of the LLAMA test battery (LLAMA_D) has been proposed as a potential test of implicit learning aptitude. To improve its construct validity, in the present study, the original LLAMA_D (a) instructions for incidental learning were modified, and (b) confidence ratings of test responses and (c) reaction time (RT) measurements were added. This...

This study investigated the constructs underlying second language (L2) word association (WA) with regard to three dimensions of lexical competence-size, organization, and accessibility (Meara, 2005)-and the lexical performance of speech. One-hundred and thirteen Japanese learners of English completed a computer-delivered oral WA task along with thr...

To examine the effects of task repetition with different schedules, English-as-a-foreign-language classroom learners performed the same oral narrative task six times under three different schedules. They narrated the same six-frame cartoon story (a) six times consecutively in one class (massed practice), (b) three times at the beginning and at the...

In an exploration of the effects of task‐repetition practice on fluency development, English‐as‐a‐foreign language learners performed three oral narrative tasks involving six‐frame cartoons for 3 consecutive days. They engaged in task‐repetition practice under either a blocked (Day 1: A‐A‐A; Day 2: B‐B‐B; Day 3: C‐C‐C) or an interleaved (Day 1: A‐B...

Prior research showed that interleaved practice (studying multiple skills at once) is more effective than blocked practice (studying only one skill at a time). This study aims to replicate the benefits of interleaved practice on the proceduralization of second language (L2) syntax and further examines the role of working memory (WM) in different pr...

In the coda chapter of the special issue on second language (L2) practice and cognitive psychology, we proposed a theoretical framework for optimizing and researching L2 practice (Suzuki, Nakata, & DeKeyser, 2019). Rogers and Leow's commentary (this issue) raised three potential issues regarding this framework, and the present response article aims...

The main purpose of the current study was to examine the relative significance of vocabulary knowledge (VK) and syntactic knowledge (SK) in second language (L2) listening ability, while accounting for the effect of several cognitive and affective factors. A total of 263 English-as-a-foreign-language learners took a standardized listening test (IELT...

The aim of the present study was establishing to what extent individual differences in cognitive aptitudes were associated with second language (L2) morphological acquisition under different practice distribution. Sixty participants studied morphological rules of a novel miniature-language system in order to use them for oral production. They engag...

To investigate the skill transfer and the effects of practice schedules in the learning of second language syntax, 129 intermediate-level English learners were divided into six groups, based on practice format (input vs. output practice) and practice schedule (blocked vs. interleaved vs. hybrid [blocked + interleaved]). Analyses revealed that the l...

Cognitive psychology research has shown that interleaving, wherein learners practice multiple skills or concepts at once, facilitates learning more than does blocking, wherein learners practice only one skill or concept at a time. Despite the advantage of interleaving over blocking observed across a number of domains, limited attention has been dev...

Children acquire argument structure through distributional evidence, but how does this interacts with event semantics and existing verb knowledge? The current study compares verb learning in adult speakers of Japanese (where lexical causatives span wider semantic categories) and English (where alternation is more restricted). In the Fully alternati...

This introduction to the special issue provides an overview of the role of practice in a second language (L2) from both pedagogical and theoretical perspectives. The following 5 areas of research are identified for studying L2 practice from cognitive psychology perspectives: (a) the type of practice (retrieval practice, corrective feedback, modalit...

This coda article offers unified theoretical accounts of the major findings of the empirical studies in this special issue of Optimizing Second Language Practice in the Classroom: Perspectives from Cognitive Psychology. We present a theoretical framework from cognitive psychology (desirable difficulty framework) and link it to the ideas of second l...

Although researchers argue that studying semantically related words simultaneously (semantic clustering) inhibits vocabulary acquisition, recent studies have yielded inconsistent results. This study examined the effects of semantic clustering while addressing the limitations of previous studies (e.g., confounding of semantic relatedness with other...

This paper reports on the reanalysis of Suzuki’s (2017) experiment and investigated the extent to which learning schedules influence automatization of second language (L2) morphology. Sixty participants were separated into two groups, which studied morphological rules for oral production under short-spacing (3.3-day intervals) and long-spacing lear...

Accumulating evidence suggests that time-pressured form-focused tasks like grammaticality judgment tests (GJTs) can measure second language (L2) implicit knowledge. The current paper, however, proposes that these tasks draw on automatized explicit knowledge. A battery of six grammar tests was designed to distinguish automatized explicit knowledge a...

The present study investigates the automatization of second language (L2) sentence processing. It compares the extent to which a mere speedup (faster execution) and restructuring (more stable execution) of sentence processing contribute to L2 oral performance. The maze task is used to measure the speed (reaction time, RT) and processing stability (...

Several previous factor-analytic studies on the construct validity of grammaticality judgment tests (GJTs) concluded that untimed GJTs measure explicit knowledge (EK) and timed GJTs measure implicit knowledge (IK) (Bowles, 2011; R. Ellis, 2005; R. Ellis & Loewen, 2007). It has also been shown that, irrespective of the time condition chosen, GJTs’ g...

The present study aimed to examine whether distributed practice works better than massed practice for proceduralization of grammatical knowledge. Learners of Japanese as a second language were trained on an element of Japanese morphology under either massed or distributed practice conditions. Results showed that massed practice led to accurate utte...

Self-assessment has been used to assess second language proficiency; however, as sources of measurement errors vary, they may threaten the validity and reliability of the tools. The present paper investigated the role of experiences in using Japanese as a second language in the naturalistic acquisition context on the accuracy of the self-assessment...

Second language acquisition (SLA) becomes extremely difficult for late second language (L2) learners, who are assumed to have passed the sensitive or critical period for L2 learning. As one of the major accounts of the post-critical period L2 learning processes, a fundamental distinction between explicit and implicit learning and knowledge was prop...

In construction of Sentence Repetition (SR) test, sentence length and pause between the presentation of the target sentence and repetition have been found to play important roles in the SR performance. The present study investigated how these two factors influence the item difficulty and the concurrent validity of the SR test with the TOEIC score....